Majority of Funding Restored for New York City Public Library as City Budget Approved

The New York City budget for Fiscal Year 2013 was approved on Thursday, June 28. The City’s three library systems will receive an $89.5 million restoration to the $96 million cut proposed to libraries. The adopted city budget restores $39.6 million of the $42.6 million proposed cut to The New York Public Library. Below is a statement from The New York Public Library about this restoration.

Over the past five years, libraries have faced significant economic constraints, which have strained the resources we are able to offer our patrons. With this year’s budget, we expect that all of our libraries will provide a minimum of five-day service and The New York Public Library will continue providing our communities with free essential services such as books, access to computers and the Internet, workshops and programs, job search resources and more. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our patrons for sharing the love they have for their libraries and making their voices heard. We also thank Mayor Bloomberg, Speaker Quinn, and the City Council for their support of New York City’s libraries and our services, which offer education and inspiration for all New Yorkers.”

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.